Field looks like complete shit. I've seen better turf at middle schools in kentucky.
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Heart of Dallas Bowl
- Thread starter ThunderCat98
- Start date
Maybe the logic behind choosing to play NIU was that it could send a bigger message if the 2nd place team in CUSA destroyed Illinois, than if Marshall did. Hopefully its a blowout win for La Tech 
So we can put the "we would have gotten more respect beating Illinois" theory out to pasture now, right?
What does La Tech beating Illinois handily have to do with how a Marshall thumping of Illinois would have been viewed across the nation? I fail to see a connection.
Herdfan91 & Herd&Hokies nailed it!
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This post was edited on 12/26 4:45 PM by ToesMU
Posted from Rivals Mobile
This post was edited on 12/26 4:45 PM by ToesMU
If NIU beats LT then we ducked the best team we could have played, might not be the best (or second best) G5, blah blah blah. Wait and see all the 'acclaim' LT will get from their win over Illinois. It'll be the same as we got, minus the 'beating a champion' angle, and will be viewed more favorably by the polls.
At the very least, we can put the argument to bed.
However, the people who raised hell about it won't say a word until next year when polls come out & say if we would have played Illinois it would make a difference. Failing to remember that beating an average Maryland team did nothing for us this year.
However, the people who raised hell about it won't say a word until next year when polls come out & say if we would have played Illinois it would make a difference. Failing to remember that beating an average Maryland team did nothing for us this year.
I still would have preferred to play Illinois because we had not played a P5 team all season and that was clearly held against us.
Someone above commented that if we had played Illinois instead of NIU and NIU beat La Tech people would have said we tried to dodge NIU. The same would have been said if Illinois had thumped La Tech..we would have heard "Marshall opted to play the MAC team instead of a P5"..and that "Illinois would have handled them just like they did La Tech."
In the end it doesn't matter much now. Hopefully we finish somewhere in the top 25.
I've seen a few comments regarding the top 25 next year....I'd be shocked if we were in the top 25 preseason....why would we be? We likely will end up there this year...but just barely. Losing some key players,I don't see many voters putting us top 25 preseason for next year. That has nothing to do with which bowl opponent we played this year.
This post was edited on 12/26 5:40 PM by GreenMachiner
Someone above commented that if we had played Illinois instead of NIU and NIU beat La Tech people would have said we tried to dodge NIU. The same would have been said if Illinois had thumped La Tech..we would have heard "Marshall opted to play the MAC team instead of a P5"..and that "Illinois would have handled them just like they did La Tech."
In the end it doesn't matter much now. Hopefully we finish somewhere in the top 25.
I've seen a few comments regarding the top 25 next year....I'd be shocked if we were in the top 25 preseason....why would we be? We likely will end up there this year...but just barely. Losing some key players,I don't see many voters putting us top 25 preseason for next year. That has nothing to do with which bowl opponent we played this year.
This post was edited on 12/26 5:40 PM by GreenMachiner
Beating Maryland did nothing for us? Do some of you guys that keep trying to claim this not remember all the preseason hype this Marshall team was getting? Your claim is absolutely 100% false. To keep repeating this nonsense wont make it true. From the beginning of the season most of the media out there picked Marshall to be one of the favorites to get the access bowl spot with some picking us to go undefeated. The Maryland win was brought up time and time again in the various discussions about us being predicted to do great things this year. Lots of the media brought up the Maryland win. If you claim otherwise, you certainly did not pay any attention to the preseason media talk because it was there.
After getting embarrassed by Rice in the championship game last year and not having any votes in the top 25 poll, we beat Maryland and instantly jump up to finish 29th. This then set up all the preseason hype by all the different media sources we had starting this year. BCS games do have an impact on perception and where you end up ranked and how you start the next season. Of course that perception only goes so far to help you as you have to get things done in the current season as well. If you start out playing a team like Miami (OH) who hasnt won a game in a year and a half and you only have a one score lead on them with a couple of minutes left in the game, your perception is going to take a big hit. Especially when you have other schools like ECU or Boise or CSU that are playing perceived stronger BCS teams.
If you squeak by someone like Miami (OH) then dont play any BCS teams it can be hard to build the perception of your team back up compared to others. Boise isnt better than Marshall and didnt deserve the access bowl slot. Marshall would beat Boise pretty easy in a head to head match up. Boise got the spot because of perception and that is due to regularly playing and beating BCS teams.
I think we'll finish in the top 25...probably around 20.
The CFP isn't ranking us at the end of the season so there will be some honesty for our ranking once more.
I agree that it wouldn't have mattered for the outlook of Marshall if they chose to play Illinois (which I pray some will just let go), because of what you said, the perception.
The flipside is we're looking scared not wanting to play a lesser conference champion with a 2 loss record and opt to play a much weaker 6 loss record holding team from a P-5 conference.
Thing is, I bet some of you on here would be ticked off at Marshall for choosing the HOD Bowl over the Boca Raton...especially since the bowl game itself, looked horrible!!
Marshall ended up in the best position they could be in at the end of it all. If Boise loses to Arizona (which they very easily could) Marshall will be the best from the G-5, hands down.
The CFP isn't ranking us at the end of the season so there will be some honesty for our ranking once more.
I agree that it wouldn't have mattered for the outlook of Marshall if they chose to play Illinois (which I pray some will just let go), because of what you said, the perception.
The flipside is we're looking scared not wanting to play a lesser conference champion with a 2 loss record and opt to play a much weaker 6 loss record holding team from a P-5 conference.
Thing is, I bet some of you on here would be ticked off at Marshall for choosing the HOD Bowl over the Boca Raton...especially since the bowl game itself, looked horrible!!
Marshall ended up in the best position they could be in at the end of it all. If Boise loses to Arizona (which they very easily could) Marshall will be the best from the G-5, hands down.
Then we would have beaten Illinois by even more and looked even better. Personally, I don't see that either of them helped us much. We could beat them both on the same night and it wouldn't do shit to help our cause.
In the end, I'm not sure it will have mattered but I still think beating Illinois would have been better for the PROGRAM than beating a "better NIU" team.
If playing "the best team available" was better than playing a team from a P5 conference, ask yourself this. Would any of the P5 bowl teams, if given the chance, opt out of playing an unranked team from another P5 conference in their bowl and choose to play Marshall because they are the "better team?" Doubtful any would do that for the same reason many of us wanted to play Illinois. National perception.
Would Texas A&M choose us over WVU? Miami choose us over South Carolina? Would LSU pick us over Notre Dame?
Perception DOES matter. .
Well, what is done is done. 13 win season, conference champs and impressive bowl win. Not enough of those to go around so I'm a happy Herd Alum and fan. Let's hope we can have this type of debate at the end of next season as well.
GO HERD
If playing "the best team available" was better than playing a team from a P5 conference, ask yourself this. Would any of the P5 bowl teams, if given the chance, opt out of playing an unranked team from another P5 conference in their bowl and choose to play Marshall because they are the "better team?" Doubtful any would do that for the same reason many of us wanted to play Illinois. National perception.
Would Texas A&M choose us over WVU? Miami choose us over South Carolina? Would LSU pick us over Notre Dame?
Perception DOES matter. .
Well, what is done is done. 13 win season, conference champs and impressive bowl win. Not enough of those to go around so I'm a happy Herd Alum and fan. Let's hope we can have this type of debate at the end of next season as well.
GO HERD
Illinois doesn't have S Carolina, Notre Dame, or even WVU's name or perception. I would have liked another option other than another MAC team, but people age blowing Illinois name brand way out of proportion. They were lucky to make a bowl game and they looked awful, not even close to the team Maryland was last year. In terms of name/perception, if it would have been Penn St (yes I know Illinois beat them) or even Michigan if they had one won more, that's a name brand I don't feel we could have passed up.
Illinois record...........
year before last:: 2 wins
last year: 4 wins
this year: 6 wins
Not so hot IMO.
year before last:: 2 wins
last year: 4 wins
this year: 6 wins
Not so hot IMO.
This is mostly true and also why I'm fine with us going to Boca Raton, not much to gain either way.
The CFP rankings didnt come out until Oct 28 when most of the season had already been played. As I mentioned before, the Maryland win helps and gets us some cred coming into this year but you then have to build on that cred throughout the season. You cant have all this preseason hype then go out there and have a Miami team that hadnt won a game in a year and a half be within one score with 2 minutes and something left in the game. You cant play 3 MAC teams and a FCS school when other teams you are fighting for the access bowl spot are playing P5 teams.
The Maryland win helps get you started but you still have to show something this year. Its all about perception. Perception is Boise was better than us even when they had two losses and we were undefeated. If the CFP was only going by this year alone how could they have Boise at two losses in front of undefeated Marshall? Boise had played one P5 team and got beat by 3 scores. They also got beat by Air Force. Boise being in front of Marshall had more to do with perception than who was the better team. That perception comes from Boise playing and beating P5 schools. If you dont think Boise's past performances had any bearing on being ranked higher than Marshall then I dont know what to tell you.
